Alice?
by imsherlockedx
Summary: Alice is odd, she knows that, but when she runs away from her wedding and flees to London, will a detective make her feel less alone? Will she be able to tell her dreams from reality?


"Did you hear me Alice? Alice!"

Your Mother's shouts snap you back to reality and your head snaps to face her.

You nod innocently in response and your mother sighs, not amused by your lack of attention.

"As I was saying," she says, clearing her throat, "It's finally arranged!" Her face lights up and she claps her hands.

You cock your head to one side in confusion.

"The wedding!" she squeals, "You and Hugo are to be married in two days!"

You freeze.

You never thought he would actually accept your proposal.

You shake your head as a protest to the arrangement but your mother just laughs.

"Speechless? So am I!" says your Mother as she mocks your inability to speak.

She rambles on about the wedding and you try your best to concentrateon her but your vision blurs in and out of focus and a giant, floating smile appears in front of you.

 _"Quite a surprise isn't it Alice." purrs the grin._

 _The head of an unusually large cat joins itself with the grimace in front of you, a body, limbs and a tail not far behind._

You try to concentrate on your Mother but she is too far out of reach.

 _You shake your head at the cat and blink a couple of times to try and get rid of him._ _The cat rolls onto his back, clearly amused._

 _"Nice try Alice but you know I can't leave. Besides, lighten up! You are to be wed soon!" he grimaces and you_ _scowl at him._ _"Oh come on, you've got to admit it's quite hilarious." he chuckles._ _You simply roll your eyes at him._ _"Well I'm just interested to see how things plays out..." he coos and with thay he fades away._

"And, maybe you should take your pills when you return home." says your Mother, eyeing you nervously.

You nod at her with a smile and she starts walking home.

Your smile falters and you sink down into the long grass. You look up to the bright, blue sky and feel the warmth of the sun seep into your skin.

Maybe that conversation didn't just happen, maybe it was just your imagination. You could never tell the difference these days. You see, you suffer from a severe case of schizophrenia, hence the talking cat. You're always having trouble distinguishing real life from your daydreams. Maybe this was just one of those times.

You sure hope it was.

 _Later_

You stare at the pills in your hand.

"Go on then, bottoms up Alice!" encourages your mother as she hands you a glass of water.

You roll the pills around in your hands a little and look up at your Mother.

"Well what are you waiting for?" she asks impatiently, "I can't stand here all day you know, I just need to make sure you take them this time Alice."

You sigh and scrunch up your eyes before tipping then into your mouth.

"Right that's good enough for me. I'll be in the study." she says and walks out.

You make sure she's gone before spitting the pills out. You go straight to your open window and let them roll off of your open palm and into the garden below, ignoring their little screams as they fall.

You sit on your windowsill and hold your head in your hands, clearly frustrated. You'd normally like to think of yourself as a pretty calm person, but this wedding thing had shaken you up a bit.

You were trying to get your head around the fact that tomorrow you were to become some snobby rich man's property.

It disgusted you.

You see, you were born to quite a wealthy family. Your father is the head of some sort of important company or something, so you're being married off to Hugo who is the son of another important business man so the companies can unite, etcetera, etcetera.

To be honest, you couldn't care less.

You had met Hugo once before and you had to admit he was quite revolting: he was rude, direct and treated you like some object. I mean, this is the 21st Century, show some respect!

The thought of being married to him made you mentally gag.

Maybe you could run away?

 _"Really Alice? Where would you even go?"_

You turn your attention to where the voice came from and there sitting on your bed in front of you is a mad looking man in a hat.

"You're hardly allowed out of the house due to your 'state', let alone travel!" he says, tapping his temple with his finger.

The Hatter did have a point: your parents never let you leave the house often, due to your schizophrenia, in case the media found out about you and the family name was put at risk.

For all you knew, you didn't even exist out there in the big bad world.

No matter, you've still stayed loyal and obedient to your parents because you thought it was for the best, but now you're not so sure.

 _The Hatter scoffs and you throw a scowl at him._ _You try telling him to go away but no words come out of your mouth._

You look out into the garden nervously. Maybe you should have taken those pills after all.

 _"Come now Alice, I'm an old friend! Why would you want to get rid of me?!"_

 _You roll your eyes at him._

 _"Now I have a very important question that I've been meaning to ask you."_

 _Oh no, you know where this is going._

 _"Why it's a raven like a-"_

 _You put your hand up to stop him._

 _"Well there's no need to be rude." he grumbles._

 _You frown at him and point at the wedding dress hanging up on your bedroom door._

 _He freezes for a moment when he sees it then starts cackling uncontrollably._

 _You cross your arms in annoyance._

 _"Oh that really is quite hilarious, you've got to admit." he says, wiping a tear from his eye._

 _"But... If you do want to run away, I'd recommend the city."_

 _You raise your eyebrows in a sarcastic manner as if to say 'you're going to have to be more specific'._

 _"Well," he begins and you lean in closer, "how about_ _London?"_

London _. According to your mother, your father had been in lots of business trips to London, although she refused to go into detail about it, scared she would damage your mind even more_

 _"London is a city full of mystery and adventure, I've been there many times myself." he boasts and you roll_ _your eyes. He narrows his eyes ever so slightly and leans in, "Y_ _ou_ _never know, you could even do ten impossible things before breakfast."_

 _Now that's more like it._


End file.
